Photo of the Week: Swarm Robotics Harnesses the Productivity of an Insect Colony

If one robot can accomplish a singular task, how much could hundreds of them accomplish?

If one robot can accomplish a singular task, think how much more could be accomplished if you had hundreds of them -- that's the thought University of Colorado Boulder Assistant Professor Nikolaus Correll had.

And now, he and his research team are developing what's called "swarm robotics," which includes prototypes about the size of a ping-pong ball that they've named "droplets," according to the university.

The team recently created a swarm of 20 droplets, and when the droplets swarm together, Correll said they form a “liquid that thinks.”

According to the university, Correll "hopes to create a design methodology for aggregating the droplets into more complex behaviors such as assembling parts of a large space telescope or an aircraft."